Team USA doesn\u2019t need NFL players to help it go for the gold when flag football debuts at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.<\/p>\n
The Fanatics Flag Football Classic in LA last Saturday showed the men\u2019s national team can bring it home. The men dominated games against teams made up of current and former NFL stars, including Tom Brady, Joe Burrow<\/a>, Jalen Hurts<\/a> and Jayden Daniels<\/a>. The team is also undefeated in International Federation of American Football games since 2018, winning by an average score of 50-17, and has captured five straight world titles. <\/p>\n It should be end of discussion. But it won\u2019t be because NFL players have made it clear they want an opportunity to compete for their country and league owners have voted to allow it. Burrow treated last week\u2019s tournament in Southern California like an audition. He was out there running, cutting, juking more than he\u2019s ever done in an NFL game. Bengals fans had to be scared he\u2019d get injured with the way he played.<\/p>\n Flag football and the Olympics are on the agenda for the NFL\u2019s annual meeting in Phoenix next week so there will be more discussion about it. USA Football is currently selecting its roster for the 2026 season. The list of athletes in line includes flag-football experts who are reigning world champions, along with those from basketball, track and tackle football backgrounds. Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL QB Robert Griffin III also is in the mix.<\/p>\n Brady, who still showed at age 48 that he excels at throwing a football, took his name out of the conversation for Team USA after going 0-2 in the tourney.<\/p>\n \u201cLA \u201928 will be a lot of guys like you saw out there on the field who make a big commitment to trying to be their best and go out there and showcase their skillset to a global audience,\u201d the seven-time Super Bowl champion said.<\/p>\n Flag football and tackle football are not the same game, of course. The games are so different that Brady was already talking about modifying flag rules to emphasize more passing. <\/p>\n NFL players and coaches weren\u2019t prepared for the round-robin tournament after only a couple practices. They couldn\u2019t rely on superior football talent to outplay an elite team that understands how to take advantage of the sport\u2019s various nuances.<\/p>\n Flag football requires a unique set of skills. Exceptional speed, quickness, and elusiveness, especially in a 5-on-5 setting, are priorities. The game is simply suited to the fastest players.<\/p>\n That rules out many NFL superstars. For example, the league\u2019s best edge rushers are among some of the greatest athletes because they combine power and speed. But Myles Garrett<\/a> and Micah Parsons<\/a> aren\u2019t going to get to the quarterback fast enough to pull flags. Forget about interior defensive linemen. Linebackers won\u2019t make the cut. Most safeties wouldn\u2019t, either.<\/p>\n \u201cI think when you look at it, you build it with corners and nickels on the defensive side of the ball and fast, skilled guys on the offensive side,\u201d said Hall of Fame linebacker Luke Kuechly, who played in the showcase. \u201cI think linebackers are going to want to get themselves in that game but it feels a lot like a nickel, corner game on the defensive side of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n Pulling flags is an art in itself, one that demands plenty of practice. Forget about the fundamentals of tackling. They simply don\u2019t apply in flag.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you traditionally go to tackle somebody, you want to have the man in front of them versus this game (where) you gotta be on the side, your eyes have to be in the right place and you really have to track that flag,\u201d Kuechly said. \u201cThese guys do a tremendous job of sinking lower and you miss that flag. So the technique that we learned as the game went on was attack that near hip, play with our eyes directly on that flag and then anticipate them dropping. That\u2019s what they are so good at and it was, quite frankly, very difficult for us to get those flags.\u201d<\/p>\n The NFL plays a violent, physical sport. Flag football is built on finesse, so being bigger, stronger and more powerful works against you.<\/p>\n Team USA\u2019s offense led by Darrell \u201cHoush\u201d Doucette III, Nico Casares, Velton Brown Jr. and Pablo Smith was unstoppable in three games last Saturday, scoring a touchdown on every possession except for a kneel-down to end one victory.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir skillset was very different than anything we\u2019ve seen in the NFL, the speed, the quickness, the ability to create,\u201d Kuechly said. \u201cOur inability to put our hands on those guys made this game very difficult. The scheme is very different. The concepts are very different. With time, it\u2019ll change and we\u2019ll have a better feel for it.\u201d<\/p>\n The right mix of NFL players \u2014 speedy cornerbacks, quick wide receivers, shifty running backs and elusive quarterbacks \u2014 could probably win the gold if they had the time to dedicate themselves to learning the intricacies of the sport.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re looking at great athletes, the NFL players are athletes,\u201d Brady said.<\/p>\n But when would they have time to devote to flag? It\u2019s difficult to imagine any team being willing to allow players to take time away from preparing for the NFL season, and to risk injury doing it. It\u2019s surprising players like Burrow, Daniels, Hurts, Saquon Barkley<\/a> and others had permission to play in the Fanatics showcase.<\/p>\n So who will represent America in 2028?<\/p>\n \u201cWhoever gives the team the best chance to win should be out there,\u201d Brady said.<\/p>\n Clearly, right now, that\u2019s Team USA. <\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n On Football analyzes the biggest topics in the NFL from week to week. For more On Football analysis, head here.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Team USA doesn\u2019t need NFL players to help it go for the gold when flag football debuts at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-565081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}